Style Is Publication

A four-line epigram that addresses Hemingway and Poe directly, equating style with publication and art with blood, and closing with the assertion that this is the American way.

A four-line epigram that sorts American letters into two ledgers and closes the book. Addressed across two names - 'Mr. Hemingway' paired with style (the title's claim that 'Style Is Publication'), 'Mr. Poe' paired with the flat verdict 'And Art is blood' - the poem makes craft a matter of getting printed and art a matter of bleeding for it. The dismissive 'So goes on the American way' refuses to adjudicate between them, treating the split not as a debate to settle but as a national habit to record and step past.